Things To Do When You’d Rather Be Dead by Michael Guillebeau

Things to Do When You'd Rather be Dead by Michael Guillebeau
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you’re a mystery reader that enjoys a solid story with laugh-out-loud dialogue, then you really must read this!

Everyone believed Detective Joe Brosette had shot and killed the Angel of Mercy, the religious maniac who had been preying on the children of Birmingham, Alabama, for months. As Joe had closed in, the evil serial killer had murdered Joe’s own wife and daughter. But Joe was never completely convinced that Father Carson, his own parish priest, was the person behind the Angel of Mercy’s reign of terror.

Joe was gutted by his family’s deaths, and over the ensuing two years, he sank deeper and deeper into despair and self-recrimination, letting himself go and drinking heavily. Friends on the force covered for him until he was reassigned from Detectives to Community Service, where he was relegated to giving anti-drug presentations to school children and public groups, dressed as a clown cop with a fake gun. But deep in his heart, he kept looking for signs that the Angel of Mercy was still out there. Then one phone call lets Joe know he got the wrong man.

If you’re a mystery reader that enjoys entertaining and humorous dialogue, then you really must read this new book by author Michael Guillebeau. As you can tell from the book’s synopsis, the murders involved are horrible and tragic, and at the time of the story, two years in the past, they are not discussed in great detail. But I want to be clear that snappy dialogue aside, the subject is treated with the appropriate gravity and respect. The first-person point-of-view of the lead character, Joe Brosette, the broken but still kicking former detective, is self-deprecating one moment, poignant the next, and it pulled me straight into this mesmerizing narrative.

Joe is aware that he’s let himself go, but he’s also never given up. He’s made promises to bring the real Angel of Mercy to justice, and he intends to do just that – even if it kills him. His department has written this case and Joe off, but he gets renewed support from some unlikely sources. I adored his unexpected helper, Juliet Capulet. She’s smart and tough on the outside and tender on the inside and comes at the mystery with fresh eyes and a fierce spirit – a spirit that has also gotten battered around in the past. She and Joe work so well together, and their evolving partnership was great to watch. I hope this is the beginning of a series.

I liked that Joe had built up quite a reputation in his department, a legend as a detective and that there was still a lot of respect for him back on the job. This is personified by another new ally, the newly-minted Detective First Coltrane, who stands by Joe and helps despite the damage his affiliation could do to the future of his own career.

Kudos for the ‘deadbeats’ and ‘has-beens’ at Johnson’s Bar. I loved how the atmosphere and the tough crowd of ‘Lost Boys,’ and how they were still ready and willing to serve when one of their own needed them at their back.

The mystery itself comes together so very nicely. All the clues are there for the reader to find, and I was delightfully surprised to have overlooked them all. I never saw the resolution coming or how the killer was going to try to make their final big ‘score.’

I will be looking for more books by this author immediately. I recommend THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU’D RATHER BE DEAD to mystery readers that like a grittier story (than, say, a cozy) with witty banter and an endearing narrator.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.

See my original review on Reedsy Discovery!